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The purpose of this guide is to demonstrate how to enable the networking service which allows you to share your files and/or printers with other computers on a network.

Enable the Service

Click on 'Start' and then 'My Network Places'.

In the left hand column under 'Network Tasks' click on 'View Network Connections'.

In the 'Network Connections' window you will see a list of the networks your computer is connected to, arranged in groups. Under the 'LAN or High-Speed Internet' group will be your 'Local Area Connection'.

Right click on the 'Local Area Connection' icon and click on 'Properties' to open the 'Local Area Connection Properties' window.

Under the 'General' tab there is a box which lists the clients, services and protocols used in this connection. There should be a tick in the box for 'File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks'.
If it is not ticked then click on the box to put a tickmark there.

Click 'OK' to close the window.

You may be asked to reboot the computer. Once rebooted the file and printer sharing service will be running.

The service needs to be running on all the computers on the network which will participate in sharing. Once the file and printer sharing service is active on your network, users in your workgroup will be able to access shared files and folders through the icons appearing in the 'My Network Places' window. For a guide on how to check your workgroup click this link. They will also be able to add shared printers to their system by using the 'Add Printer wizard' from the Control Panel and selecting a network printer. There is a guide on how to share a printer on a network at this link.

You can also use the Network Setup Wizard, in the Control Panel, to automatically turn file and printer sharing on or off when you create your network.